Free Movement

Watching a child makes it obvious that the development of his mind comes through his movements.

Maria Montessori

A recent study by the UK's National Trust showed that children are playing outside for an average of just over four hours a week. In the US, a recent study by the Seattle Children's Research Institute discovered that on average, children aged 10 to 16 now spend only 12.6 minutes a day on vigorous outdoor activity compared with 10.4 waking hours being relatively motionless. In Spain, another study carried out by the Fundación Gasol showed that 40% of children are overweight, and 55% of children between 8 and 11 years of age do not follow World Health Organisation guidelines in relation to daily physical activity. This has an impact not just on children's physical posture and health, but also on their attitude to learning, their ability to concentrate and memorise, and their general energy levels.

Movement is the motor which drives child development. Children are born with an innate need to climb, jump, swing, balance, play ball or just to move about. The urge to move is therefore part of human nature: it encourages exercise in a natural and healthy way, and ultimately promotes the development of the child. The kind of movement that free play elicits is more important in the early years of a child than organised sports, and forms the basis for the development of lasting physical and mental health.

As soon as a child's muscles are active, messenger molecules (in the form of proteins and hormones) are continuously released, and have a positive influence on metabolism, and in the regeneration and connection of nerve cells in the brain.

Stimulating the balance systems, which is something children do spontaneously in free play, activates the release of hormones, such as neurotrophin, that have a tremendous effect on brain activity. When seating is dynamic –enabling children to move around the classroom, sit on the floor or on cushions, and work in any position they choose–, body temperature rises due to increased blood circulation, the brain gets more oxygen, and concentrating becomes easier.

Noise is necessary, movement is necessary, and to be healthy these must be allowed to be exactly what they are –shapeless explosions of an over-plus of energy.

Margaret Lowenfeld

Brain research shows unequivocal connections between body and mind: learning involves the whole body.

It has even been suggested that motor and cognitive development should be viewed as two connected cogs within a large complex system, each dependent on the other. Taking part in physical activities on a regular basis has been associated with improved academic performance, attention and memory; doodling increases children's concentration skills; and early kindergarten motor skills, especially visual motor skills, contribute to children's reading and mathematics at a later stage.

Sensorial and motoric experiences are the bedrock upon which all intellectual functions are built. Therefore, to deny movement is to halt development at its very source.

Anita Olds